High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #95 | Zarkira's Invitation (Part 2)

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

The ship limps it's way into Gusthaven for some desperately needed repairs! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Keep chasing it. Drive your ambition. Mitsubishi Motors. Well, you know what? It was a scary moment, but we've made it through. Yes, Stormchaser is very badly damaged. Yes, it's going to take some time to repair it, but you are all alive.

Oh, my God. Oh, it was close. Certainly a tip of the hand in some ways. You now have a bit more information about one of your enemies. Yeah. Yeah, she can cast some pretty wild spells. She's a massive, massive bitch. Who knew? Yeah, we know.

Nova knows. Nova caught a little glimpse of some sort of conversation there, but who knows? Who knows what it will be. And definitely made it worse. Again. But yeah. So we jump back in.

I mean, we can skip ahead of these kind of like days of waiting if you want and just kind of cut ahead. But if there's anything you guys want to talk about or do, now is a good time to do it as there is really not a lot going on on the Storm Chaser apart from kind of routine medical checks and repairs. It is

tough going for a few days so take the stage if you wish to. I would like to study the blade, I mean the Tome of Understanding and I would like to study the blade. I mean, the Tome of Understanding. And I would like to... Oh, yes. Boom my wisdom up.

Open my mind. Thanks, Aplumbus. I mean, Hesper. Yeah. So, yeah, like, over the next sort of... It's going to take, like, sort of, you know, between five and eight days, or, like, quite a long time. You're probably going to be cutting this meeting pretty short

with the kind of more precautionary, only traveling at night, waiting for Gustaven kind of thing. You're going to have several cutting this meeting pretty short with the kind of more precautionary, only traveling at night, waiting for Gustaven kind of thing. You're going to have several days of just, yeah, sitting around doing not a lot. So, yeah, you can read and complete the Tome of Understanding, Quill, reading that on your off hours. So remove the item.

Technically, you don't need to remove the item from your inventory. However, the magic from it, as you finish it, as you close that last page you feel your mind kind of open up, stretch and expand in a spiritual level as well as a kind of just an understanding of people and the way of

things but you feel that magic transfer from the book into yourself and the book now just feels like a standard book it just feels like it's dormant, the magic sleeping for the next 100 years yeah, that's still a mega relic

I'm going to store away in a very special place sure in the section T in my alphabetized books I'll modify your abilities because I think I need to...

No, it's already done it. Oh, when you use it. Oh yeah, there you go. Perfect. So my wisdom is now 22. Oh my god. Oh, nice. Good lord. Calm-mindedness, just open thinking.

You could totally give the book to Sentry to Sentry because Sentry, in theory, will still be alive in a hundred years when all of her friends are dead. Yay! Wait, will the elves still be alive? No, because with Erosian elves,

we changed it so they don't have the we- thousands of years bullshit that normal elves do um you'll still live older than most like i mean i'm sure it is it's a nightmare from a world building dm sense because it's like oh a war that happened a thousand years ago oh my my dad was alive in it so i probably know all about it lol it's like, yeah, I guess you do. Nova will be an AI by then. She'll be a magic trick. She'll convert herself into a magical AI being.

Install herself in a special... I'll be a god. I'll install myself into Sentry to be like a little Alexa for Sentry. Oh my god. Wow. No offense to Nova, but Nova elected

constantly correcting you on everything and like Oh my god, yeah. Uninstall. Did you know? Did you know? Would you like to listen to Baby Shark? Let us put the idea of Amazon's Nova or

El Anasto's Nova, the new the latest gizmo from the El Anasto Corporation. Let's put that to the side. Whilst Quiller's reading his book, is there anything anybody else wants to do anything like any NPCs you want to chat with I want to attune

to the two bracelets I took from that sorcerer child that wasn't a child but was a sorcerer they will have no benefit to you Nova as you already benefit from an armor bonus these are braces of defense so anybody who is not wearing

armor can get a plus two bonus to AC. Lucius! Lucius! My god, I'm literally going to burst into Lucius' room in the middle of the night and just put them on him. No, just like... Put these on him! Don't take them off. Ever! My arm! Ow!

Oh yeah, his broken arm. Does it break again? It doesn't break again, but it's very painful and unpleasant as Nova is trying to strap this bracelet onto you. I'm not going to force it on you. I am going to kick into his room

once I figure out what it is. I am going to kick the door down and be like, Lucius, you need to put these on right now and never take them off. Put them on now. Now, put them on now. Put them on now. Put them on now. I am going to kick the door down and be like, Lucius, you need to put these on right now and never take them off. Put them on now. Now. Put them on now. Put them on now. Put them on now. I'm very easily scared. Please, give me a

moment. What do you want me to put on? Put this on. Put these on. Put these on. Bracelets. Put them on. Right. Make you stronger. They don't really go. I'll be honest. I don't. Did you make these? These are fantastic. They're so

well made. Well done. If I say I made them, will you put them on? Would you be lying? What benefit does it give me? You're not going to get hurt as much. They'll help you.

They'll make you strong. They're like armor, but not armor. You might not get broken arms so much. If Aayla was walking past the door and heard that description, she'd be like, put them on right now. Put them on now and never take them off and then just continue down the hallway. Just continue walking.

Hey, I heard you guys talking from down there. What are you saying? Lucius gets hurt less? Put him on. Put them on. Sentry, I have a thing that Lucius needs to put on and he won't put them on. Tell him to put them on.

Lucius, put them on right now, please, for the love of all that is good. Put them on. Put them on the bracelets. please, for the love of all that is good. Put on the braces. Okay. Lucius, you may add braces of defense. They're not that garish, actually.

They look quite nice. They're kind of like twisted bands of metal. Quite pretty. They add plus two bonus to your armor class, as long as you are not wearing armor and using no shield. Holy moly. What is your AC now? 14.

14. As a point, that's not a huge difference. But it's something. It's still trash. But with Barrier Ring, it could be 16. Yeah. Exactly.

Now we're talking. But with Barrier Ring, it could be 16. Yeah. Exactly. Oh, it's normal. Now we're talking. It's normal. Look, some of you are gods of AC, okay? Normally, barbarians don't run around with 19 AC as a point. I'll attune from the messenger in. Or locks. You require attunement, I believe.

Oh, actually, no, they don't. Oh, it does. It does require attunement. So, yep. Yeah, because no, they don't. Oh, it does. It does require attunement. So, yep. Yeah, because Jito had these towards the end. Stone of good luck. Bye. Is that you again?

What did that do? Who wants a stone of good luck? Not me. It doesn't seem to give any luck. Ever since you picked that thing up. It's so lucky. What does it do? It's plus one bonus to all ability

checks and saving throws. That's pretty good. I'm full. I'm full capacity on magic things. I'm full. I'm good. Sell it. Don't forget,

unused magic items can be sold for gold I'll sell it I'll get rid of my magitek wing Yes you should for this stone I'm sorry what? What was that? Nothing I don't want it Unless I get rid of the messenger rings What was that? Nothing. Nothing.

I don't want it. I don't want it. Unless I got rid of the messenger rings. Which, to be honest, I probably could do. I've got sending and message and stuff. It's just I won't hear stuff. Get rid of them. Ayla will talk directly in the messenger ring.

Quill, don't you dare. You fuck. Oh, my God. Oh, my Hesper, I mean I'm talking about Hesper Hang on, do I need to attune to the staff? You do, I haven't actually statted the staff up yet, I'm sorry

I've been distracted If I have to attune to the staff which, in that case, I pretty much have to get rid of the messenger ring because Dusk Willow's ring is pretty useful. It's extra spells. Again, it is, but you could also sell it. And you have a lot of spells.

Is the messenger ring more useful or the Dusk Willow ring? That's the question. Yeah. I think the Dusk Willow ring I'm going to have to get rid of for the staff. But yeah, I still have no space for the Stone of Horrible Luck.

It's fine. That's fine. Anything else from anybody else? After the shenanigans of the braces are resolved. We can take a long rest now, right? You can take many long rests. You can take several.

Oh, 150 hit points, I love you. Come back to me. I'll also do all the communication stuff as well with Lillian Sprocket and total up all of the repair work, potentially, if I can. Okay. Yeah, so in terms of repair work, so you the lillian's rocket of lillian's rocket shipping company a pair of gnomish ship builders uh in the sky city of gustaven um you

get a kind of uh i'm guessing like in 25 we're not going to do the 25 words 25 words back thing because that's going to kill me and you have days and spell slots um the gist of it is something long lines of like yes we can we can make repairs as required yes very well uh and then you get like a list of pricing it's going to be expensive uh the the repairs alone uh for because the engine the main engine will need to be repaired the sails the helm um and hull um so we're talking about 500, 500, 2,000, 2,500. Probably about 3,000 gold for the whole ship to be fully repaired.

Like, all the components fixed, a brand new hull, like, all hull hit points restored, everything. It's about 3,000 gold. This is an expensive repair job. Ayla, how many bars of platinum do you have left? We have three.

Three. Okay. Can we sell that chest that Quill bought? Yeah. His little face. Can you sell my chest? What? You don't get it!

If I place it down on the ship, we can store literally anything that we pick up in the chest, and it's like an ender chest. The ship just about got blown up completely. Yeah, but it's good, guys. Trust me. It's good. Ayla. Ayla, what if we sell Quill?

I would be worth a ton. I'm going to make a big effort of putting this tiny stone of good luck in that chest and nodding at Quill. Right, Quill, note down your Leomund's secret chest

contains the Stone of Good Luck. Make a note of that. Because if it's not written down somewhere, that stone vanishes to nothing. I'm removing it. Please write it down. Please write it down. DMC.

Yeah, we can't, we shouldn't get rid of him because you actually just invested quite a bit of cash into making him a wing. So, you know, we should probably get our money's worth on that before we sell him. At least. Yeah, definitely. My, my, that, that big cat. I feel like I can hear big cat agreeing from a distance with that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wise cat, that cat. Hungry all the time as well. That's Helios. Yeah. Helios. I mean, you'd think he'd be fat. We've got three platinum bars. We've got three of them.

Cool. So that's 3,000. We had more. Yeah, they're 100 platinum each, aren't they? So it's 1,000 gold I thought we had more. Yeah, they're 100 platinum each, aren't they? So it's 1,000 gold. We are now officially poor again. Well, the gold hasn't gone out of your money accounts just yet. You've not arrived in Gusthaven, but yeah, that's going to reduce your funds.

So things like if you want to buy, things like having upgrades built and things like that is probably going to cost money, or you're going to have to go and find rare resources after this leaders meeting maybe. If you want to buy your own like restock on potions and things you're going to need to get some money from that as well um things like we don't you are carrying a lot of like magic items and stuff as well either look at like getting them reforged or like getting improvements made to your existing things all of that stuff um you know that

gust haven um and any of the sky cities horizon will be the case as well so you don't have to do it in gust haven the sky cities are generally your best place to go for magical equipment and magical things uh they produce ethereum they can make magical items they just you're going to need the money to do so you're going to need gold and resources and stuff. Cool. Same way, like, if you wanted to buy Kamara's wolf pack armor and weapons, you're going to need to buy that.

And it's literally like buying 10 suits of armor, 10 things. You know, things like if you want to try and get the magical blaster rifles, or thunderstorm rifles. Those are all things you're going to need to buy, physically buy. Do we still have things from those device things that we got when we were in space?

With the bike stuff. The little charge things. If you have them on your character sheets, you have them. I'm pretty sure Nova has them. The little chargers? Did you mean the Magitek? Yeah, the Magitek stuff. We left a whole bunch of stuff with

Boob Lady. Oh, with Brain. Boob Hair Snake Lady. Thalia. Oh, yeah, we left the bike with Thalia. The bike and all the Magitek stuff is with her. Oh, yeah. My brain just farted then you could send in to Thalia

and say hey can we meet you at blah blah blah and get our stuff you could try and like message her to meet with Thalia potentially could do I want to see her again yes I would like I want to see big cat again

big cat alright sure I can send I also wanted to do a sending to Sky Prince Auradon as well to say clear skies in Merskir attack from Zarkira almost destroyed

Stormchaser, heading to Gusthaven, but may need alternate transport to meeting. I just realized how close that name is to Amaram from Stormlight. He's not like Amaram.

Let me make that clear. He's much better than Amaram. You get a message back. It takes a little bit of time but you get a message back clear skies, good to hear from you all well unable to help financially with repairs but can provide assistance to Horizon

see you soon nice that was worth a try the transport is there to Horizon. See you soon. Perfect. That was worth a try. The transport is there. Also, now he knows that Mierski was us. Oh yeah, we're the heroes. We're the cool guys. Boom! What up, Paradam?

It's your boys, the Storm Chasers. Oh yeah, we saved the continent. I mean, you have just told him that that was you. There's no actual proof that you did it, but yes, in theory, I mean you have just told him that that was you there's no actual proof that you did it but yes in theory yes you have told them do you want a message to Thalia what do you say to Thalia

it's basically like hey can you make it to Gusthaven in four days I won't meet you there or as much as you can yeah you probably get a message back of like, not quite sure where Gusthaven is, but we'll figure it out.

Shouldn't be a problem. Hang around for a few days if we're not there. Quill, tell her I miss her. Ask her where she is. Is she eating? Is she adapting okay? Is she all right? Is the ship okay?

She sounded great. Not really how to spell. I can do it again. I can't send it again. Go on. Nova's asking if you're eating well. And also, she misses you. And also, how's Big Cat?

And also, Kyrie. Oh, and also, Elf Dude, whose name I've forgotten. Well, that's the message. He's not with them anymore. Yeah, he's not with them. You get a message back of, oh, tell Nova I look forward to seeing her. We are all well. Good cuisine here on Erois.

Big cat Kyrie, A-OK. Kiss, kiss. What did she say, Quill? What did she say? Quill, what did she say? What did she say? What did she say, Quill? Also, they're eating well.

Okay. Okay. Good cuisine. So are you going to, like, do anything about this crush that you have when you see her again? Or are you just gonna let it slide? I don't have a crush. What are you talking about? I don't have a crush. Nova is bright purple at this point.

I don't have a crush. What's a crush? I don't have a crush. I don't love anyone. What? There were two kisses. I wonder who they were for. Six of us. I'm good with that one. I don't want one. We'll have to figure it out, Quill.

I don't know what you're talking about, bye! Sentry, Lucius, anything from you guys? I think Sentry would help Grey Larno as much as she can. She'd be down in the medical bay, assisting Grey Larno. You were practicing with Grey Larno as much as she can. She'd be down in the medical bay assisting Grey Larno. You were kind of practicing with Grey Larno as well, weren't you?

Yeah. Okay. And then maybe when Grey Larno's finished, then she'll go help Howard prepare food, keep everybody fed, just running in between those two, just feeding healing, feeding healing. Using that kind of tireless guardian energy to just kind of help restore some order and kind of familial home

life kinds of like you know uh just try and get things back to normal as best you can yeah you can see that the attack has definitely shaken howard a little bit he's a little bit quieter uh having stared death so so aggressively in the face. But he tries to keep his spirits up, especially around other people. But when it's just the two of you, he is a bit more quiet. You can obviously see him thinking over things

and rubbing at the scars and burns that he's got left on his face and things like that. How are you doing, Howard? How are you holding up? and burns that he's kind of got left on his face and things like that. Yeah. How are you doing, Howard? How are you holding up? I'm alright, Master Century. Yeah, of course. Just concentrating.

Just trying to keep busy. Trying not to think about the fiery explosions of death that almost killed me. Just trying not to think about them. Trying to think of other things, like remember my old family recipes and uh uh and trying to remember certain songs i remember you know all sorts of things just trying to keep my mind off of it really trying to think of all the good things yeah keeping things good yeah i think just um maybe you and uh captain lucius and the, maybe you're a bit used to nearly dying,

nearly crashing on a big old airship in the middle of nowhere. It's a bit mad, isn't it? It's very mad. Well, keep focusing on the good things. You're doing a really good job. Good things. Yes, that's right. Yes, yes.

Me and you, we'll do that. Why don't we um maybe we can make a cake should we make a cake yes all right yeah that sounds good he's just clearly like anything he can grip onto as a distraction he's like yep let's make a cake he's just desperately trying to use whatever he can to focus on other things but yeah the two of you managed to make something and uh the wolf pack being the wolf pack seemingly unfazed even though some of them have like lost an eye or fingers or have like only just started to recuperate just their spirits don't get down like as soon as there's cake and beer they're just like and just like ah pouring it down their mouths and like scratching their ears and stuff um seemingly

unfazed by all uh but yeah they uh appreciate the efforts made by yourself and Howard to keep morale high what about our captain they uh they're incredibly powerful yeah important

you're right you're right he just kind of like looks at you and says, thank you, Century. I appreciate it. I think out of everyone here, I don't know, you seem to I think you seem to understand. Well, my mum would call it the Halfling way

of things. Like you said, the small things matter. That's what I'm trying to think about. Yeah, I think like that's just quite a nice little moment between Sentry and Howard. What about our captain? I think Lucius

would confide in Faith over the next few days. He's got some lingering issues and I think he's willing to speak to someone like Faith about them in tiny

doses. They're more separated from the rest of the crew. Yeah. Struggling to sleep. Waking up with traumatic nightmares. Reliving drowning.

And the injury injury they had and all the failures recently of going down and and having to be brought back over and over again and breaking his arm and uh living through scrapes sort of thing yeah i think faith's a good person to speak to unlike the others she doesn't try and talk or give you too much advice she mainly just listens um provides comfort when it's needed but also is just an ear to speak to and she's very different to the other wolf pack members she's not as boisterous um she's still she's young but there's a wisdom to her kind of agedness uh where she seems maybe a bit of an old soul really um and she just speaks and listens uh sorry listens and nods as you talk and explains things kind of puts an arm around you in a friendly sort of just being there for you um doesn't try to talk too much and there's a there's a piece in that not having to

kind of over explain things or have people tell you their opinions but the only time that she ever kind of like really retorts is when you call you when you say that you're a failure or you talk about your failings and i think faith would say lucius i don't i can't the way you feel is the way you feel and that's important and i'm not the person who can tell you not to feel that way but from an outsider's perspective you haven't failed at anything you were the one who if you hadn't given that order to brace if you hadn't been the captain of the ship a lot of us wouldn't be here today. The others have talked about how you have saved their lives in battle with spells.

Just because you get hurt, because you go down, because you aren't tough or strong, doesn't make you a failure. Your powers, your skills are something else entirely none of the others your friends none of them could be the captain of this ship they don't have your personality they don't have your empathy your care they don't understand centuries almost fearless this kind of soldiers mentality but you can see it as a person does as we do

you're not a failure Lucius you never have been thank you Fayeth I appreciate the sentiment though I can't agree any one of them could step into my shoes and do the job that I do. Any one of them, they have the compassion and empathy for other lives,

to step up to the duties that they're responsible for. They could match the duties, yes, and they are compassionate, kind people, but how do I put this I don't think any of them care or feel in the same way that you do and that's what makes the difference being the captain of this ship it isn't just about responsibilities or fighting enemies it's about more than that and i i genuinely don't think any of them could replace you not in the same way i i think that you don't do yourself enough credit for that

maybe so. However, I'm a burden to bear, and I get that, it's fine. I'm not like the rest of them, though I do have what you say that I have, sure. But when it comes to what's required to do what we're doing now, I can cast spells, I'm very potent at it all

of you know a lot of people in our party are but i'm weak i go down i'm brought back other members constantly scrambling to To save me. And I'm a distraction. When they could be focusing on. Defeating. What needs to be defeated. Instead they're getting me back on my feet again. I can understand that.

I kind of know what it's like to be the weakest in the bunch. I can understand that. And I'm sure that if they were here, they'd probably say something like, you know, that they're willing to do that for you. But I think I can understand better than most that feeling of... better than most that feeling of feeling that you're a burden, feeling that you are a weight around others necks. I don't know if I've got good advice for you on that. You're the first person who I've ever felt that I haven't been that to. This is why I came to you, because you understand this. And I could only come to you for it and not the rest of the team.

That would put too much on them to know that I feel this way. And it would change things. I think talking about it is good. I worry that sometimes you keep all of this pain. I've heard about you know things about what happened to your family and i know you don't talk about it but i know you kind of pack it all down deep inside and i think it's good to talk um i'm trying to remember kamara says something to me and it's it's something i don't quite understand or can't appreciate,

but maybe it's something for you to think about. Okay, so yes, you get hurt and the others come and save you and that can make you feel a certain way. Maybe it needs a change of tactics or something. Maybe they need to help look after you more sure they come to your rescue when you get hurt but maybe there's a way that they can stop you from being hurt maybe there's spells that you could learn something that you can protect yourself

better with so that you can not feel that way. I don't really understand magic, but I've seen the amazing things you can do, and I'm sure there must be something, a new way of approaching the problem maybe, or something like that. But you're not me. They're desperate to help me. And I show them the braces. They want the best for me.

They care very much. But I can't help but feel like i'm an emotional burden and nothing changes that really but you're right i'll i'll speak to i'm going to be seeing my sister soon she's very strong she always has been look up to her she'll know how to talk to her about it i will and i say this with well i i don't want you to get the idea that i'm suggesting anything but if you ever decided that you couldn't do this anymore you can still be the captain of the storm chaser even if you can't fight this callous and even if you can't go around saving the world, you'll always be our

captain, no matter what. That is something I feel like I have earned, and I'm proud of that. So thank you for that. The one thing that I cannot beat, it's deep down, ever since i met this bunch

of people that i i'd never want to lose sight of is i'm a rich boy i'm a rich boy from a rich family that was in the position of an airship because the wealth put me there. Not my skill, not my talents. And I'm lumped with the rest. Maybe. But I also think that you've taken that opportunity. Sure, okay. Your family and your money bought you the ship,

but they didn't make you the captain. That's all your own. And she just puts her hand and sort of rests her shoulder on yours and says, and that's all I'm going to say on that. And that's it. And she just stays by your side as a friend, there to give comfort and listen further. But I don't think she'd add any more conversation.

She'd just let you talk for the rest of it, I think. It's good to meet. Yeah, cool. The days go past. People working on various things, having their moments. If there is anything else to shout otherwise, within maybe only sort of three, two, three days to go before this leader's meeting,

the shadow of Gusthaven appears on the horizon as the storm chaser limps into its docks a few symbols and signals from ariya and messages sent uh basically get you a very private dock uh secured by the lillian sprocket shipwriting co approved by the sky prince himself. You are met by an armed guard who are not there to check you, they are there to escort you and to make sure that the Stormchaser is

protected whilst it is docked. A full contingent of Royal Guards is stationed. But yeah. Anything from you guys? I'm assuming like Lillian Sprocket've it's almost like a formula one pit spot pit stop where we just land in and they've just got all this material ready to go

and like so yeah so they have i mean it looks like that some of it's like things like lumber and all the basics are all there but when you begin sort of like disembarking from the ruined thing you see sprocket the male gnome with pink kind of swirly cotton candy hair, kind of has his hands on his hip and he looks furious. And his wife, Lily, is kind of like, kind of holding him back like, now, now, dear, we mustn't be too angry with them. You must know that our ships are going to be encountering many dangers out there in Arois.

And you can just see him just like, you wait till I get my hands on that captain. I'm going to give him a piece dangers out there in Aroas, and you can just see him just like, you wait till I get my hands on that captain, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind, my dear. Oh my god. Well, fair enough. Yeah, as soon as they see Lucius, little Sprocket is just like, you young

man, how dare you do this to my precious work? This is one of my masterpieces. I know, I'm sorry. Should we try to do our best. We have the best crew possible. But unfortunately, we came into a really dangerous situation. What did you do?

Fly her into a volcano? Worse, actually. Meteors. Meteors? Meteors? How would we defend against meteors? I don't know, my dear. That's quite a conundrum, isn't it?

Skyship is quite vulnerable to such things. Quartermaster Quill has a long list of repairs, maybe potential enhancements. Well, we'll need to provide you with full pricing. Yeah, the repair has been already communicated, so, I mean, we've got the money to pay for that now, I believe. And, okay, okay.

He just holds his little hands up, like, give me the money now. I will drop three really heavy platinum bars. He holds one. The second one has him buckle his knees and nearly collapses under the weight. The third one threatens to knock him over, and his wife takes that one.

And then he's just like, Oh, yes, marvelous. Raw platinum. Very rare. Well, this should provide the basic coverage for all the repairs necessary to the engine, helm, sails, and hull, as communicated by your quartermaster. We can begin working on that immediately.

It will take several weeks of time. Two to three weeks, I suspect. Two to three weeks. Yes, my dear. Click on that. Cheers her hand up, young man. How much... Yeah, I don't know.

Out of curiosity... Yes, my dear? How much extra would it cost to attach a gatling gun to the deck of the ship? How much extra would that be? A gatling? A quackling gun?

Sentry, could you just... And I would have probably asked Sentry to bring it along like off the ship so it's the big thing that we took off the pylon golem you look like Mark the Chief carrying a big portable turret you see Sprocket's

eyes go very wide when he sees it just like marvellous and his little kind of like goggles he adjusts them just like a fine piece of engineering not even a speck of Magitek engineering. Not even a speck of Ethereum on it. Where did you acquire this? Surround.

Oh, around. One of the reasons why the ship looks a bit beaten up. Oh, yes. Oh, this quackling gun is very impressive. Mounting it on the ship, we will need to divert power to it. It seems to run off some sort of magitek system. May need to replace one of the ballista, if that's something you're willing to do,

but we can make that part of the general repairs, if you like. I think... Captain? Quartamata? Quartamata? Quill? Quartamata, yeahartamata? Quill? Quartamata, yeah. I mean, have we... I don't suppose in monitoring the docks you've seen any

ladies turn up that might look a little bit... Captain Thalia is who I'm talking about. Have they arrived by chance? I don't know who that is. Okay, okay. Well, they might have

some extra bits to make the repair or the quackling gun installation a little bit easier. So we'll try and meet them. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, we'll begin attaching it to the top or bottom turret, would you prefer?

Aayla? Huh? I know nothing about ships. They're giant things that keep trying to cause my death. Bottom. Bottom. Very well. Lily, make a note that we will attach the quackling gun to the bottom of the storm chaser.

Yes, very well, dear. I'll begin making up some plans and schematics for such a thing. Yeah, the two of them seem to be very excited at this new project. Sprocket is enamored by the gatling gun. He is very, by this kind of magitek energy turret cannon, he is mesmerized by. I love security officer Ayla just like,

I don't know, top or bottom, whatever. She's bank security, right? Most of what I do is shout at people. Most of what I do is just shout at people to do stuff in an intimidating fashion and then if anything

comes near her, just whack it off. You know? Delegate. Delegate. Penny is the one who... She's the one who knows. She can be the one who knows. Whack it off. With that, yeah, Lillian's pocket.

Well, payment has been made. We can begin ordering in the extra supplies and beginning to get work to repair on your ship. These royal guards were sent by the Sky Prince or something to ensure that nothing bad happens to your ship. I don't know why such an insinuation would be made. But I believe that they left a message. There's been a room reserved for you at one of the inns near the palace

and that you are to be treated as guests. That was the... Lily, was that the message? It was vaguely that, my dear. Yes, very well. Our business here is concluded. Good. Perfect. We go away off towards his office. Okay. Did we want to stop

by the El Anasto estate as well, just to see how things are going there, or...? Yes, we probably should. There is no El Anasto estate as well, just to see how things are going there? Yes, we probably should. There is no El Anasto estate anymore. Well, ex-El Anasto estate. The El Anasto secret estate. It belongs to, it has been sold on to, House Virenor now.

The three sisters, Nira, Adela and Karina all run the house together yeah if you guys make your way through the city, Gusthaven has seemingly not changed too much still very full of visitors from both the lowlands and other sky cities all kind of coming here

to do business and trade you do notice that there are definitely a heavy there's a heavy guard presence that seems to be much stricter uh checking things that are kind of incoming and outgoing of the sky city um but you are all left pretty much alone uh the guards seem to have been told of your coming and have just don't bother you when you are moving around the place. In the place of the former, if you head to where Lucius' home,

his family home that was destroyed in the explosion that killed his mother and father, the lot had been built over. Heavy construction is underway of a new estate, a new house estate, but it has the crest of House of Virenor on it. You can see there are all sorts of workers waiting for you outside is the more scholarly sister,

who I believe is Karina. It's been a long time. She meets you outside. Again, sort of like dark brown hair, very long looking kind of traditional elven, big large spectacles, looks a little bit like the character from The Mummy in a kind of suitable, scholarly outfit

with a long pencil skirt and blouse and clipboard and that sort of thing. Oh! Master Lucius El Anasto, it is wonderful to see you. We had word from the docks and sky prints that you were coming, and I thought it best to meet you

once the storm chaser docked. I didn't want to intrude on your business at the docks but I had a feeling that you might head here. Absolutely. Very good to see you again. How are things? They are proceeding well thanks to your

rental of your land. House of Erenaur is beginning its own work. The project that you spoke to us about as per the terms of our agreement, I'm here to show you the progress on it. Oh, excellent. You hear that, everybody? The project.

Yes, and she kind of looks around like, stop making a big deal of it. No one knows about. Well, follow me. and she begins leading you uh away from the actual estate building itself into a small park uh alongside it um lucius it's i you tell me whether what how lucius would feel to this but um there's an area of the estate that's been cleared. It is now more of like a public land.

It kind of is part of these noble gardens and these estates that the noble families of Gustavians live in. But there is still like public areas where people can walk. And quite a gentle little park with several benches and a few kind of little flower gardens and things

like that has been erected near your family estate. And a statue of your mother and father has been erected and Edea as well, actually, because everyone thinks she's dead. So the three of them, there is a statue of the three of them that has been erected in this park

as kind of like a memorial statue. It's like a memorial park. And it's called the El Anasto El Anasto Park it's all like been beautifully kept and maintained and paved ah as soon as

Lucius catches sight of it he would catch his breath and stop on his tracks and kind of clutch near his chest the sight of it oh oh I didn't stop on his tracks and kind of clutch near his chest uh at the the sight of it yeah oh i didn't expect this the sky prince and house viranore thought that it would be a well it's the least we could do for

the work that your father and mother and family have put into the city and I thought that it might be the best location for a way for the project entrance it's very close to home but it's something that we felt that you wouldn't

that would be difficult to miss for yourself she leads you uh gently and slowly uh to the statue itself and you can see that uh it's built onto like a large stone base um she'd lead you round through the back uh this has been encoded so that only someone of Elinasto blood can access it from this area. But if you simply touch this sigil here, you can see that very faintly there is a faint sigil engraved on the statue's back. On the base, on the plinth, not on the actual characters on top, but on the base. There is a faint sigil there that only you can see. Anybody else who looks at it doesn't see it.

When you're ready and make sure that any companions you wish to take with you are nearby as well. Look up at the now imposing statues of the three.

Draw a deep breath kind of going back into some old positive memories of them probably like a montage of on times at events and things like that and being tucked in at bed and all that kind of stuff and then he touches the sigil uh when you do so there is a yeah there's as you touch it everyone around you there is a brief kind of flicker and flash as you are teleported to an adjacent room, like beneath the estate,

a secret entrance accessible only to those of the El Anasto bloodline. And yeah, you arrive in a... You know in Dark Knight, when there's just a room with the light ceiling it's just a big empty space it's like that currently uh it is a large open empty room um with just magical lights built into the ceiling like kind of dancing lights and strings that provide like a very soft gentle glow um there is the ability to you can see that there are some partition walls that can be moved and arranged. But this is basically the secret lair that you had requested as part of the deal with the Virenor family.

This is like your, this is Lucius's Batcave, basically. Built beneath the ruins of your mansion. Astonishing. You can access it via the same method uh you can see here that there is a uh a platform um this will however work for anyone who touches it so if you do leave any of your companions here they can still leave on their own accord just remember that you must have lucius with you to return uh we didn't want to we wanted to encode it so it was as secure as it can be for someone of his bloodline.

Thank you for doing that. How do you get in here to build it? Well, we constructed it. We do have access for construction, but now that it's complete, those accesses have been removed, basically. Right. Perfect. There is an emergency escape that brings you up into the Virenor estate

obviously we do ask that you keep that too unless you need it just otherwise we will have the difficulty of explaining how you have suddenly appeared in our house to contend with and is there some sort of larger entrance if

there were to be bigger things arriving? We can make that work, yes. We can shape stone and terraform the area around it. We could probably build that into either to emerge from the bottom of Gusthaven Island, so that it is accessible via air, if you prefer. That would be splendid. Would that not, everybody? A secret underneath Gusthaven

entrance. That sounds fantastic. Very well. Maybe a waterfall could cover it. We would... That would have water just coming out of the bottom of Gusthaven to anything below.

I'm not an architect. Yes. Right. We'll keep it as a secret secret haul. Well, I am led to understand that you have, that the Sky Prince you are the Sky Prince's guest,

but we would be delighted to have you all for dinner at House Virenor as well. Oh, that's very kind of you. Thank you. You're welcome, Master Lucius. I will leave you to it. I'm afraid that there are no decorations. We did just try and keep it to a minimum spec. We weren't quite sure what you needed here, so we have just left it

quite bare for the moment but um i'm sure that you can arrange for your own furnishings and things and we can have them installed for you so just let us know and we will have that done excellent uh splendid work uh please pass on my compliments to all those involved my sisters will be very pleased to hear it thank you uh, Mr. Ananastu. Well, I will leave you to it then. And she makes her way off to the exit that goes up into their estate, basically. It's pretty cool.

This is... This is... wild. With the security as well. I know you're excited about the hole in the bottom of Gusthaven to park stuff, but security-wise, Elinasto and Elinasto only being

able to get here, it's got to be one of the most secure places on Gusthaven. Yes. But it does raise a question. Would we want Edea, Moonstar, to meet us here as well? I know that

they're very concerned about their security and their identity as the moon star so maybe we could invite them here now yes I suppose if we've got time for it we might be late well I mean

time marches on and all that well our invite could expire to where we're staying the inn You know, they stop checking in at a certain time and all that That's true

A city like Gusthaven has 24 hour access Does it? I've never stayed at an Well Also, anything okayed by the Sky Prince himself. I mean, there must be a lot of leeway. I think we've got time. Yeah, loads of time.

Well, there's lots of unpacking to do here. It's a mess. It's a mess, isn't it? But this room is a mess. It's completely clear. I'm scared of scratching the floor with my armor. I don't... I'm scared of moving.

I don't want to move. I'm going to stand here the whole time. Sentry, this is as much yours as it is ours. So please, use it as you would. Training grounds. Training grounds? Yes, anything you want here, you can place it here. What is yours, anything you want here, you can place it here. What is yours?

Anything this light touches. All of you can access. Well, I'm going to have to shoot off. I've got to do it really quick. We're going to have to wrap the episode up early. I've got to go pick up Nina from something. That's okay.

That's where we're going to have to end the episode there, my friends. But yeah, fair enough. Of a super secure Batcave. Batlucia cave. Moon cave. Oh, we need a sigil that goes to the sky. Moon star is calling.

Moon star. Hell yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Perfect. Thank you so much, guys. guys um thank you mark we'll take it thank you mark yeah great job great episode uh i'm glad i'm glad it wasn't the tpk i'm very glad it wasn't the tpk it was amazing then perhaps i thought it was going to be i was like it'll be okay, it'll be alright